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Tim Sweeney confirms Epic is paying to keep games off third party sellers (Inc The Division 2)
- Thread starter BernardoOne
- Start date
- Better pricing than Steam (this happens regularly on other stores so isn't impossible)
- Improved usability / user interface
- Useful features that Steam doesn't have, or improved versions of Steam functionality
- Reward system (e.g. loyalty points for purchases)
Epic have done none of this.
Edit: My last sentence is not quite true. As Jaded Alyx points out, regional pricing is better in some countries, and available in more countries, than on Steam.
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It's a good little read and highlights exactly why so many indie devs are biting for the timed exclusivity when Epic comes by with the bags of money. They know that the PC games market is so overly saturated that trying to get peoples attention on a platform like Steam is extremely difficult, let alone convincing people to then part with their money. They're no doubt extremely aware that sales figures on the Epic store will be infinitely lower than Steam, but with the increased visibility and higher revenue split combined with the Epic moneyhat, it seems like a no brainer and I don't blame the devs that do it.
Seems like you're missing the point of that article. People who play F2P games tend to not buy premium games.
In Epic's case: Fortnite players. They'd rather buy Fortnite items than spend money on games that they don't care about. Because all they do is play Fortnite.
You could have read the OP. Sweeney literally said that he won't allow key reselling for games they moneyhat.
Also, cdkeys isn't an official key reseller. They are selling keys from retail games.
Sorry, the point I was trying to make that I'm sure indie devs are VERY much aware that they're likely not going to get many sales from the EGS, but the payout from Epic is enough to convince them to try their luck. Any sales are just an additional bonus.
and how many times have we seen people say "I have an account on Epic store, but just for the free games". Devs are competing not just with Fortnite, but the free games Epic have flooded the market with.
They have regional pricing in more countries than Steam currently so this isn't quite so accurate.
I can confirm this. Here in Panama, Metro is $20 while in Steam before the removal, it was $59.99.
Hate that Valve refuses to add regional pricing here.
How about using that Fortnite money to produce content which you can then use to promote your store?
I wrote to Valve about this (well, the Caribbean specifically since that's where I am), and they replied saying they would consider it when they review their pricing setup this year. Whenever that is.
A highly curated store with a single free game every 2 weeks is "flooded"?
Well, technically only Valve games had regional pricing here. I wrote Newell about the issue, and next time I search them in the store, they have the same price as in the US. Feels like an own goal.
I think the main focus in the last years was mainly in South-East Asia expansion, as that was where they were seeing a major increase in game sales (and it is an area EGS has less regions).
Steam also is slower in including regions as they normally want to have set it up so that you pay in local currency (instead of being hidden as a dollar equivalent which could create issue with refunding).
When a store has more free games than paid games, and it's flagship game is also free, good luck convincing people to pay for games on it.
I think this is one area Valve will respond to, but I imagine all those devs will be upset at all these forced discounts
My bad, that's very true. I was thinking of pricing too simplistically from just my country's point of view, where often 3rd party stores like Voidu have cheaper prices than Steam.
2 often short, seldom amazing free games a month isn't exactly flooding the market IMO. The people who would be sated by such releases are likely casually playing fortnite and not much else, anyway.
it is a flood when you have approximately twelve paid game available on your store total
The likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer etc are basically in their pocket due to advertising, much like all of the big sites.
Yep, I understand why it's slower with Valve.
It's ok. I still depend on stores like Voidu for Steam keys, but ideally Steam would incorporate regional pricing here so there would be no need for me to use them since the prices would be significantly less. I had to take stock recently and rethink how much I'm spending on games. It's an extremely expensive hobby for people in poorer countries.
I think the biggest reason for the relatively slow addition of currencies, alongside that generally happening in the form of groups of currencies rather than piecemeal additions, is that Valve endeavours to support as many local payment methods as possible in addition to the usual debit/credit card, PayPal, etc. The Indian store, for example, supports cash on delivery, of all things.
Don't see what's wrong with this. Business is business and competition is competition. Exclusives make your store shinier and it works with consoles.
But this is not consoles and they are making a monopoly.
Can you cite any example of someone paying to get third party games pulled from competing stores ever having worked on PC?
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That's one way of dismissing 11 pages of discussion, without putting in an effort, I guess.
This is not competing.
Say our town has a top of the line cinemaplex that everyone enjoys. It has the best AC design in the shopping district, so people love going there on hot summer days.
One day, I decide to open my own theater across the street. The seats are less comfy. The food is worse. The screens and sound systems and accoustics are worse. The movie selections are the same. I pay the local utility providers to not provide you with central air, to provide it only to me.
Now, suddenly, your movie theater is a little worse off than before, and my movie theater isn't quite as enjoyable as yours was when I wasn't around. Aside from satisfying my own greed, all I've done is sabotage the movie-going experience for the local community.
I could have provided more modern accoustics. I could have offered double features. I could have had classic movie nights. I could have offered something different. But no, rather than compete, I just sabotaged
Stop the drive-by nonsense please. People aren't complaining because Epic's launcher is hard to download. They are complaining about Epic's shitty anti-consumer and anti-competitive practices, which they don't want to support. It makes perfectly sense to vote with your wallet against something you don't like.
No self respecting company would refuse free money. With TD2, Ubi probably had like 90+% of digital sales from their launcher, so they got Epic money AND get to keep most of the sales full revenue. Epic probably knew this would happen but paid to keep this from Steam. The main follow up from Ubi will be to see if they sold more or less than TD1 and if it aligns with their predictions, so they were paid to do some marketing research too. If they think they sold too little, they can go back to Steam on their next game. If not, they learned they can stand on their own and from now on all their games will be on Ubi launcher only.
I'm not even sure it matters. Alyx's dad has surely died of old age by now.
If their primary goal was to convert Fortnite players they wouldn't spend millions of dollars taking games off of every other storefront.
Yeah, you have to wonder a bit about the logic of getting everyone to sit and wait for the free games for a full year, while simultaneously having large discount on things like Ubi games, all while the largest gaming driving traffic is a F2p game - and then saying that wishlists + discounts is a bad thing triggering a certain behaviour among customers.
It may be that the PC gaming market is a bit saturated and certain store fronts have visibility problems. Don't let that fool you into thinking that there are no success stories of new indie games that struck it big. Its just harder.
Long story short, no one forced small groups of people to go into business by making an independent game and I have no obligation to buy any game. No game has any obligation to exist on any platform that is not worth their time/money. We all have choices and no one is good or bad for exercising them.
Long story short, no one forced small groups of people to go into business by making an independent game and I have no obligation to buy any game. No game has any obligation to exist on any platform that is not worth their time/money. We all have choices and no one is good or bad for exercising them.
Increased visibility seems an odd thing to claim in Epic's favour. Let's say an indie feels they're being overlooked on Steam, which can be attributed to any number of factors. Even still, it's probably safe to assume that your potential audience drastically shrinks on the EGS. Then factor in that any discoverability on that store is entirely up to you, even down to offering streamers a portion of your cut, making viral discovery a double-edged sword. So that's already a bad deal, outside of whatever immediate lump sum Epic is offering.
But then you factor in that you have a) an already-diminished playerbase for that game, and b) a non-zero number of previous fans who have bad blood over your going EGS-exclusive, and suddenly the interest in your next game has plummeted, even if you're back on every store possible.
Yeah no doubt, I agree. I was thinking along the lines if Epic were going to go after the division 2, I could see them going after Bethesda games. Especially something like rage 2 which has much more doubt selling on Bethesda store exclusively than the division 2 on Uplay.
https://galyonk.in/your-target-audience-doesn-t-exist-999b78aa77ae
Galyonkin (Epic games head-guy)
Why would Fortnite be different? If Valve couldn't convert its GaaS Audience, Epic will have no chance with the mostly young audience.
Could you explain more about this ?https://galyonk.in/your-target-audience-doesn-t-exist-999b78aa77ae
Galyonkin (Epic games head-guy)
Why would Fortnite be different? If Valve couldn't convert its GaaS Audience, Epic will have no chance with the mostly young audience.